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Every time this conflict brings me laughs I feel progressively worse about myself as this is a terrible thing, really... but now rebels appointed the new voice/leader of the moderate opposition and his name is Jihad! I know it shouldn't be funny and isn't for people who are there, it's a common name and there is war etc etc but goddamnit...

Islamist extremists in that strength and the al quaeda brigades are a recent phenomena in the Civil War and this is one of the very few coverages about them.

I apologize, am being combative today.

Yeah, well, recent but not very surprising, considering the usual downward spiral mechanic present in such situations. Thankfully, recently the non-al-qaeda rebels were fighting them and apparently doing well as even extremist rebels realized this is another kind of crazy. So there is hope this won't be the dominant tone there.

Islamist extremists in that strength and the al quaeda brigades are a recent phenomena in the Civil War and this is one of the very few coverages about them.

Apart from that it's just a piece of fairly non-sensationalist investigative journalism, which are all too rare.

It's not been that recent, unless we're talking about a year ago. Their presence has been there a long time now.

Large groups like Al-Nusra (no idea what that means) and Al-Shabab (The Young) have been around for a while now.

Al Nusra was actually created during the Syrian Civil War in 2012 actually.

This is why I was complaining so much about US intervention.

No, they did not take any ground or military intervention themselves as a country, but they did heavily promote conflict, and influence more conflict and more devastation, by openly and I repeat *openly* supporting the rebels.

The rest of the world should have known, *should have known* that there is NO WAY to guarantee that those weapons and aid would go to the right, noble persons in Syria interested in the welfare of Syrian people.

These groups that the US government armed by sending aid (and the US was very vocal about helping rebels, as doing so improves the "street cred" of politicians like John McCain) to these "rebel groups fighting for their freedom."

It was an advertisement to the American public to support "American style revolution" in a country no one in the US really even cares about. It was a public show, and saying it was anything else is a complete farce.

What the US government supported is ethnic cleansing, and this is what the "real rebels" are actually doing. They are murdering Syrians just as much as the Syrian government was.

This is why I have been advocating absolutely no interventions which support war (funding rebels, promoting war, increasing odds of stalemates and urban warfare and guerilla warfare by giving everyone even more ammunition to kill others with), and only interventions which stop the war or at least calm the damn flames (which I admit, is more complicated than anything else).

Al Nusra is made up of Sunni Muslims, for example. This group in particular has been advertised as one of the most despicable, murderous, and barbaric groups in the conflict.

Particularly, they target minorities (like Alawis, which I believe Assad himself is a member of). These group also enforce Sharia Law.

Keep in mind, as bad as the Syrian government is, and I believe they are the worst kind of criminals in the world... these rebel groups are even worse.

They are the only reason I have been advocating stability first, revolution through peace second. This is why I actually support what the Russians did more than what I do of the US. The US supported even more barbaric groups of rebels, to take place of an already barbaric state. And destabilizing Syria even further was just the wrong way to go, by giving weapons, finances, and logistical aid to these rebels. It was just the wrong thing to do.

Again, I don't see supporting Syrian government by Russia as much better at all, only marginally so. But the goal of stability and saving human life should have been far, far more paramount than taking actions that would destabilize a difficult situation even more, and influence and accelerate the growth of colonies of terrorists such as Al Nusra and Al Shabab.

P.S.

I just don't think people are correctly imagining the scope of the failure of humanitarian aid here.

There is one guy I know here from Syria I see sometimes, one of my neighbours. He is the only one of his family in the US right now, the rest in Syria. He's not a rich guy, but he's doing a lot better here. But the fact is his family is still over there.

The people dying there are part of families, which is important. Imagine family members of people in your country, UK, USA, wherever the heck you guys are all from.

Imagine all these people losing countless numbers of family members. Like all their children. Or all their brothers and sisters. Or whole generations of people getting killed by war.

The scope of the damage of that on the Syrian people is just ***king incredible. And I think when people think of war, they forget that this is the result.

I think of this huge earthquake stuff in Japan, Haiti, China, the same way. So much incredible loss and suffering that could have been prevented if those in power really wanted to give a shit, but they don't give a shit!

You want to tell me how these 'revolutions through peace' work when the government doesn't give a shit about gunning down protesters?

'oh no! Said Assad. All these people I don't like are dying! my power is waning, waaaaniiiiing.....'

He wasn't stepping down. Not even if you asked super nicely and said nobody would be his friend if he didn't. And yeah, the rebels are just as bad at this point, but pretending that there was a peaceful solution to a dictator who's quite content to bomb his own citizenry when they request he quits is insultingly naive. Unless the peaceful solution you suggest is 'lay down your arms and get used to serfdom in a hurry'. The entire situation is an awful clusterfuck without a lovely answer, because sometimes reality doesn't care to provide one.

And THIS is why you actually comment on things, rather than just do a linkdump and wander off.

There is nothing to say here, really. Just some surreal imagery.

EDIT: Ok, for those who are not following. They are mostly Chechens and the camera guy is probably Russian or a Chechen from a European part of the country. They are with Al-Nusra apparently and this footage is from the assault on Central Prison that happened few days ago. There was a huge 40+ min video on YT but it got suspended( not before I downloaded it though). It contains crisp Go-Pro HD footage, a 5min long speech by the battle cleric, the huge suicide truck filled with explosive operated by a suicide bomber who came from Britain, people taking pictures with him on their iphones, lots of Allahuackbar shouting, child soldiers( or people with really young-sounding voices). Buisness as usual. Here is the short episode from the end. It's surreal to say the least.

watched few videos and they are so depressing. those idiots are fighting where just 2 years ago people were living normal life. You can see satellite antennas, garden chairs and other regular household items... now it's just rubble.
stupid human nature.

Though after Indians took over India they kind of made a crappy mess of it too......... maybe a bad example then.

Originally Posted by Serenegoose

You want to tell me how these 'revolutions through peace' work when the government doesn't give a shit about gunning down protesters?

'oh no! Said Assad. All these people I don't like are dying! my power is waning, waaaaniiiiing.....'

He wasn't stepping down. Not even if you asked super nicely and said nobody would be his friend if he didn't. And yeah, the rebels are just as bad at this point, but pretending that there was a peaceful solution to a dictator who's quite content to bomb his own citizenry when they request he quits is insultingly naive. Unless the peaceful solution you suggest is 'lay down your arms and get used to serfdom in a hurry'. The entire situation is an awful clusterfuck without a lovely answer, because sometimes reality doesn't care to provide one.

I think this is pretty reasonable.

There seems to not be any quick fix.

It was bad at first, but progressively it has just gotten worse and worse and worse. I think there is no good guy in this war either. Assad is a jackass evil person, and then the mostly faceless rebel organizations are as bad or possibly even worse.

I am disappointed in the world powers for well... being so powerless to do anything about this whole mess. Or maybe they don't want to.

I mean technically shouldn't the UN and all it's nations be responsible for what is going on and be the ones who must stop it? I mean seriously, I think USA and Russia should both be incriminated for war crimes for supplying weapons to the rebels and to Assad's regime. All they did was fan the flames higher.

I guess NATO countries are too busy protecting their hegemony in and around Eastern EU though, who cares about Syrian people amirite?

the huge suicide truck filled with explosive operated by a suicide bomber who came from Britain, people taking pictures with him on their iphones, lots of Allahuackbar shouting, child soldiers( or people with really young-sounding voices). Buisness as usual. Here is the short episode from the end. It's surreal to say the least.

BBC has been reporting crucifixions and beheadings (that's probably not as uncommon).

Gandhi cemented, for another generation, the attitude that women were simply creatures that could bring either pride or shame to the men who owned them. Again, the legacy lingers. India today, according to the World Economic Forum, finds itself towards the very bottom of the gender equality index. Indian social campaigners battle heroically against such patriarchy. They battle dowry deaths. They battle the honour killings of teenage lovers. They battle Aids. They battle female foeticide and the abandonment of new-born girls.

Yea India is a complete mess tbh (I believe something like 40% of food produce is wasted in transit or in "storage" which means piling it up anywhere that can be found, and is strongly affected by corruption at even the lowest levels), and this speaking as a 100% Indian descendant, I'm glad I didn't grow up there/wasn't born there.

Would be too off-topic, but a thread about the horrific contradiction of everything that is India could last for many pages I think.

There are pockets of progressiveness and progress and hope (celebrities like Amir Khan using their publicity potential to oddly cast a show that is similar to 60 minutes and promote change, which is nice to see), but in such a vast country real change takes a lot time. That it is such a large and democratic country (with large doses of nepotism) is interesting, and also scary since it is nuclear armed.

Also they really need to stop their broadcast networks copying CNN, it's embarassing... there's at least one guy trying to pull it off, makes me want to slap his head lol.

I didn't know much about Gandhi's contributions to gender inequality, nice to know,

As far as rape goes... there are congress members that hold office in India who have been charged and sometimes convicted of rape offenses apparently.

It like the revolutionary people want something so badly that they will fight for it but when they get there they find out running a countryy is hard and there are people who liked the old way and some people who like the new way also don't have great views on certain things because nobody is perfect.

@rockman

The UN is pretty useless because it also has countries that gain a lot from Assad being there like China and Russia and they totally dont want them to get any military ideas if the UN wanted to go against them so its kind of a stalemate.